A major road in Victoria has been named the most dangerous place for accidents in Australia, a new report reveals which group of people are most at risk behind the wheel.
Plenty Road in Melbourne’s north-east topped the list of roads with the most accidents between 2014 and 2023, according to AAMI’s Crash Index Decade of Driving report.
Data collected by the insurer shows that car accidents are high across Australia. The figures are based on 4.3 million motor vehicle claims across the country from 2014 to 2023.
Leah James, AAMI Motor Claims Manager, noted that the data comes from a trial of speed reduction on the busy road in 2022, based on AAMI data.
‘Following the introduction of the lower speed limit, our data showed a 26 per cent reduction in crashes, demonstrating the positive impact of the AAMI Crash Index on saving lives,’ said Ms James.
The Hume Highway in Liverpool, New South Wales, ranks second on the list of hotspots, followed by the Bruce Highway in Queensland, Albany Highway in Western Australia, Canberra Avenue in the Australian Capital Territory, Marion Road in South Australia, Sandy Bay Road in Tasmania and the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory.
Ms James said all the hotspots, with the exception of Sandy Bay Road in Tasmania, had held their positions for more than five of the past 10 years. She stressed the roads were busy ‘but also dangerous’.
Plenty Road (pictured) in Melbourne ranks first as a hotspot for the worst car accidents
Men were more likely to have an accident than women (54 percent compared to 46 percent), while drivers aged 65 and over were the most dangerous behind the wheel.
The most common collisions were rear-end collisions at 26 percent, while failure to yield accounted for 19 percent of collisions and accidentally damaging parked cars accounted for 17 percent of collisions.
“Driving to the tail and not yielding are the most common accidents. This shows that in our country we have a tendency to drive too close to other drivers and get distracted,” said Ms James.
The afternoons between 1:00 and 4:30 pm were found to be the worst times of day for accidents, followed by 9:30 am to 1:00 pm and 4:30 pm to 8:00 pm.
“This coincides with picking up children from school and is usually a time when roads are busy, patience is wearing thin and drivers are tired from the day and in a hurry to get home or to their next destination,” Ms James said.
Drivers aged 65 and over are the most dangerous behind the wheel in Australia
‘At that point, drivers need to be alert and vigilant behind the wheel to avoid colliding with their car or having an accident involving a child.’
It was also found that Friday was the day with the highest percentage of accidents in the week, at 16 percent, followed by Thursday and Wednesday.
Saturday and Sunday went best.
The data was shared with federal, state and territory governments “to identify and plan future road projects, and to drive policy changes and road improvements at identified hotspots.”